Balancing good and evil!

By Bill Flavel

When I say, “the Abrahamic religions have a terrible and bloody history; it’s time they were gone”, you can be sure a believer will complain that I am being one-sided. They’ll tell me not to ignore the good religions do and they’ll point to schools and hospitals funded by religions or outreach work to feed the homeless.

Surely, this is grievously mistaken thinking. The bloody history of these religions includes the murder of millions in wars such as the crusades, the Islamic wars of conquest and inter-religious conflicts; tens of thousands tortured, burnt at the stake or killed in other horrific ways for alleged witchcraft, sorcery, heresy, blasphemy or apostasy. And killing is not confined to the history books–executions, murder and terrorism in the name of religion continue to this day around the world.

Balancing this appalling carnage with feeding the homeless is a bit like asking us not to be too hard on Ted Bundy because he helped his elderly neighbour with her weekly shopping.

And don’t say these deed were done by evil men, not by God. Read the Bible–God caused more deaths than all the world’s worst monsters combined. These evil men were emulating their god.

There are no excuses for the violent and murderous history of the Abrahamic religions and anyone who supports them should feel not virtue, but shame.